ed-books-ex-ias-officer-in-liquor-scam-case

Days after filing a fresh case, the Enforcement Directorate has arrested retired Chhattisgarh IAS officer Anil Tuteja in connection with a Rs 2,000 crore alleged liquor scam linked money laundering case in the state, official sources said on Sunday.

 

The federal agency had detained the 2003-batch officer from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW)/Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) office in Raipur on Saturday evening where the bureaucrat and his son Yash Tuteja had gone to record their statements in the same case.

They were issued summons by the ED at the EOW/ACB office to join the investigation and record their statements following which they were taken to the central agency’s office here.

 

The retired IAS officer was questioned and later taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Yash Tuteja was allowed to leave after questioning. Anil Tuteja is expected to be produced before a magistrate in the city where the agency will seek his remand, the sources said.

 

The officer retired from service last year. He was last designated as joint secretary in the industry and commerce department of Chhattisgarh.

 

The ED had filed a fresh money laundering case in the alleged liquor scam case after the Supreme Court recently quashed its earlier FIR that was based on an Income Tax Department complaint. The apex court ruled there was no scheduled offence and hence the money laundering case does not stand.

 

The agency, just before this ruling, had shared details of its probe in the case with the state EOW/ACB seeking registration of a criminal case and once they filed a FIR, the ED registered a new money laundering case taking cognisance of that complaint.

 

The ED has estimated the alleged "proceeds of crime" in the case at Rs 2,161 crore.

 

Money was “illegally” collected from “every” bottle of liquor sold in Chhattisgarh and evidence of “unprecedented” corruption and money laundering of Rs 2,000 crore generated by an alcohol syndicate led by Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, has been unearthed, the ED had alleged.